Study finds television set top boxes are major energy hogs

In 2010, television set-top boxes in the United States consumed approximately 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to the annual output of nine average (500 MW) coal-fired power plants, according to recent research by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The researchers estimate that the amount of electricity required to operate the approximately 160 million set top boxes and costs households more than $3 billion each year and results in 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.